Inside The Bills

The Bills will look for their first road and first division win of the season Sunday against the rival Dolphins. Here’s the latest edition of your questions on email at AskChris@bills.nfl.net and on Twitter @ChrisBrownBills.

1 – Chris,

I had strong hopes our run defense would finally be much improved this with the hiring of Mike Pettine. Apparently that isn’t the case. I don’t think the high tempo offense is helping much at least not until we can string together a few first downs. The play calling on offense is extremely frustrating to watch. Hackett runs CJ into a wall of bodies 1st and 2nd down in the first quarter of every game leading to many 3 and outs. By the time we throw a pass the defense knows it’s a pass and it’s hard for him to get confidence early.

Anyways, on defense you can see them stopping the run in the beginning then it really looks like they get lazy at times. I can’t stand seeing Mario being single blocked just standing there content to be taken out of the play. Is there any emphasis on playing all out on EVERY second of every play on defense?

That’s what the good ones do. Their standard is to not be satisfied ever. Our guys seem to lose steam after they make a few plays and then they seem to get comfortable as if their job is already done. They too often put a shoulder into the ball carrier and just stop because someone else came to help. Then the help wouldn’t finish the tackle because another player got in on the play. Very poor tackling at times! Do you see them being coached hard or is it just business as usual after letting up 500+ yards?

Dan

CB: I have to admit I am puzzled myself as to why the run defense is not better. The defense is solid when it comes to pass pressure and takeaways, but Buffalo ranks 28th against the run. That shouldn’t be the case with the talent they have up front.

The coaches insist that fundamentals are the main problem and they do harp on it every week in practice. They spend time during individual position drills every week doing tackling drills, more so than any other coaching staff I’ve seen here in the recent past.

So it’s on the players to do better there. Mario Williams even admitted it himself.

As for the offense I think Nathaniel Hackett has adjusted the pace somewhat. Now on their fourth QB it behooves them to slow the pace a bit to maintain possession. Buffalo’s offense did pretty well on third downs with Lewis at QB last week going 8-17 on conversions (47%). What helped was most of the time they stayed in manageable down and distance situations.

Part of the reason coach Hackett is so committed to the run game is it helps overcome the changes at quarterback. The run game makes life easier for Lewis to work play action and negate the opponent’s pass rush. Oh by the way it’s also been effective. The Bills lead the AFC in rushing.

And you should get used to some of the one and two yard gains you’re going to see in the run game in the first and second quarters. Those eventually develop into bigger gain plays later on in the game.

I remember a lot of fans used to lament how we scrapped the run too early the past few seasons. Now we’re sticking with it and some still aren’t happy. I’ve got no problem putting the ball in the hands of Jackson and Spiller.

2 – Chris,

I was hoping you could explain the captain designation on the uniforms. I have noticed that some captains have one or more of the stars under the “C” colored in in gold and others have none and some have all the stars as well as the “C” in gold. What does this all mean?

Thanks! – Kevin

CB: The captain’s patch on NFL jerseys has a large letter ‘C’ with four stars beneath it. The number of stars that are gold indicate how many seasons that player has been a captain. If the player has been a captain for more than four years, the ‘C’ is also gold. Here’s an example of Brian Urlacher’s old captain’s patch as he was a captain for more than four years.

3 – Chris,

It seems that year-after-year, the Bills have had a never-ending string of injuries to key players – and seemingly more than other NFL teams. I’m curious how the Strength & Conditioning coaches deal with preparing players to avoid injuries (and other coaches – i.e., not taking an unnecessary big hit). Looking at the last three years alone, here are players that seemingly would be on the field…but have missed time because of injury.

It’s just hard not to think that this simply cannot be simply “luck” – as it is becoming horribly routine.

CB: So the rest of the fans reading this know, Mike provided a listing of injured players going back to 2011. I can tell you that the majority of the injured players listed above either sustained broken bones or ligament injuries. That has nothing to do with strength and conditioning. Football is a violent game. To be clear I’ll go through the injuries from this season one at a time.

So out of 16 injured players only four have muscular injuries that could be related to strength and conditioning and I stress could. Three of those four players are at positions where there is the most running and players are most susceptible to muscle fatigue. Buffalo’s strength and conditioning staff monitors player load with their GPS tracking devices in practice to make sure players, especially at those positions (RB, WR, LB, DB) are not being overworked in terms of reps in practice.

Here’s a closer look at some of the efforts taken by Eric Ciano, Hal Luther, Dan Liburd and their staff. You’ll also find if you look around the league that other clubs incur similar losses to injury.

4 – Chris,

Greetings from the biggest fan in Arizona and thanks for keeping us informed.

Do you have any statistical data on Run After the Catch (RAC) of our opponents so far this year. On third down it seems to me that the short crossing routes and the RAC are killing us as far as getting off the field on third down. Kiko does such a good job getting pressure on the line or the opposing QB that the other LBs are frequently one on one on the underneath routes. With the defense beginning to get healthy, what can the Bills do to limit the underneath stuff on 3rd and four or seven and get the defense off the field.

See you in December at the Dolphins game!

Warmest regardsLarry Kordosky

CB: The Bills defense right now after six games has allowed the eighth-most yards after the catch in the league (792). Here are the teams that have allowed even more, some of whom have played only five games (see: Miami, Minnesota, Washington).

The crossing routes are some of the hardest to cover, not that it’s an excuse. I do expect Buffalo to improve in this area though with their defensive backs getting healthier as a group.

Your coverage is off to another great year. Keep up the excellent work.

My questions relate to the uniforms the Bills wear each game. How far in advance are the decisions made about what will be worn? In particular, when they are wearing their white jerseys, do they have to commit to the white or blue pants in advance? Also do the players have any real preferences over what uniforms they wear, or are they largely indifferent? Do they have any superstitions about the uniforms? Lastly, do the players have any say in the uniform selection? I have to say that I am NOT a big fan of the blue pants and wish the team would stick with the all-white look on the road. It is classic look and I think it is far superior to the uniform with the blue pants. I am curious about your opinion as well.

Thanks,
Walter

CB: Thanks for the compliments. Here’s the deal on the uniform decisions straight from our Equipment Manager Jeff Mazurek.

The home team decides jersey color selection. Those decisions have to be turned into league office on July 1st.

As far as pants there’s no designation required it’s whatever the team prefers. Uniform combos are decided between Equipment Staff and management.